Southeast Asia’s leading private equity event that brings together the region’s leading CEO’s, chairmen and business owners focused on buyouts, growth capital, distressed asset and venture capital investments!

Speaking on a wide range of topics, such as effective exit strategies, due diligence processes, and regional PE trends, Elixir's co-founders were at center stage sharing their insights.

2013.04.06

The spring issue of WSJ Money - a "magazine" insert in the Wall Street Journey had the above graphic showing the tremendous growth Brazil, India, Russia, and China (BRIC) had from 2001 to 2012. The graphic was part of an article on economist and Goldman Sachs banker Jim O'Neill, who is credited with recognizing in 2001 that the BRIC countries were set for tremendous growth [see Mar. 26 post on this blog].

We at Elixir believe a number of Southeast Asian countries are where the BRIC countries were 10-15 years ago. Will such countries experience 300-500% plus growth over the next 10-15 years? Can money managers and investors afford to sit this one out?

2013.03.28

Wall Street Market Watch online has a March 21 article stating that Turner investments has come up with the acronym TIMPs - Turkey, Indonesia, Mexico, and the Philippines - in promoting the next countries it sees as emerging for investors. TIMPs shares 3 of the 4 countries in the rival acronym MIST - Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea, Turkey.

Economist and outgoing Chariman of Goldman Sachs Asset Managment Jim O'Neill is credited for coining MIST. Jim O'Neill is also credited with having in 2001 first selected and coined the acronymn BRIC for Brazil, Russia, India, and China.

According to the article, the BRIC countries average 6.6% growth the past decade and "investors gained 424 percent from 2001 through 2010." Not bad.

Elixir Capital believes Indonesia. among other Southeast Asia and MENA countries are where the BRIC countries were 10-15 years ago.

2013.02.20

Abrar Hussain, Managing Partner at Elixir Capital, will be a featured panel speaker at the 8th Annual International Conference on Contracts at Texas Wesleyan School of Law in Fort Worth, Texas this Friday and Saturday, February 22-23, 2013. Abrar will be part of a panel discussing the Role of Islamic Law in Middle East Commercial Law.

The conference is the largest annual scholarly and educational conference devoted to contracts and related areas of commercial law. Abrar Hussain along with Managing Partner Arshad Ahmed are strong advocates that Islamic principles are complementary to business enterprise and profitable investment.

2012.11.11

Elixir Capital's Managing Director, Abrar Hussain, will be the featured panel speaker at a significant conference organized in Dubai for regional family offices and multi-family offices: Middle Eastern Family Office Symposium.

Held at the Park Hyatt Dubai, on November 12-13, 2012, Abrar will serve as a key speaker on the Real Assets & Private Equity panel on Tuesday, November 13th.

2012.11.08

Reuters published an article - "Google reaches out to the 'next billion'"- discussing Goodle's effort to drive mobile phone users in emerging markets, such as the Philippines, to become accustomed to accessing the Internet via smart phones. The article is a further sign of the transitioning people from computers to mobile devices, such as smart phones, and an affirmation of the potential emerging markets offers for the growth of mobile and wireless services. We view the Philippines at still too early a stage for our private equity investment; however, regional cousins, Malaysia and Indonesia, have further developed markets for investment in mobile and wireless services.

2012.11.05

The Economist in its October 27, 2012 issue ran a special report called Technology & Geography. "...[N]o other place has seen the cycles of investment, success, failure and regeneration... that have made [Silicon] Valley what it is, so no other place as yet has [Silicon] Valley’s scale and resilience."

"[Silicon] Valley is big enough and old enough to have clusters within clusters, from makers of semiconductors and network equipment near San Jose to Google and Facebook farther north and a host of smaller young internet companies in San Francisco. Even within the city, there are divisions between districts: South of Market, or SOMA, with lots of smaller start-ups; the Design District, which houses Airbnb and Zynga, a games company, in bigger premises; and Mission Bay, the base of Dropbox, a cloud-storage firm (see map [below])."

"Young companies need more than labor; they also need money and advice." That's the reason why high growth small and medium enterprises relocate, or at least try as hard as they can to connect, to Silicon Valley.

The Financial Times published an article last week - October 28, 2012 - on the growing interest in private equity investments in Southeast Asia. The article was titled "Southeast Asia on Radar of Private Equity" and focuses on big name players, such as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Blackstone, and General Atlantic, entering the region.

It's a great endorsement of the attractiveness of the region for investment to have such names take notice. Malaysia and Indonesia have been experiencing 5% plus economic growth, despite global economic crises while the BRIC countries - Brazil, Russia, India, and China - have cooled off with significant signs of further economic turmoil and downside.

But the strategy these funds are bringing to the region has limitations. Most of the funds named in the article focus on buyout transactions. As the article indicates, that means targeting large, over-leveraged conglomerates, which present a number of problems - the article mentions some.

The problem with this approach is that there will only be a handful of deals that these funds can invest in. Most companies in the region will be too small to attraction the attention of these funds. More importantly, the large conglomerates being targeted are unlikely to have the exponential growth that the smaller mid-market companies are going to have.

We believe the real opportunity is investing in "right size" companies with the potential for exponential growth -- businesses that provide investors exceptional growth potential while mitigating the risks inherent in start-ups. To us, this is a sweet spot for risk reduction and upside potential.

Arshad and I founded Elixir to bridge Silicon Valley with emerging markets where we see some truly amazing opportunities. I thought it fitting to use this in place of a logo (which we've been been noodling on). Over time, I will try to update the garage logo to highlight some of the other places where innovative ideas and people have gotten their start. If you have any ideas, let me know.

2012.10.07

Elixir Capital's Managing Director, Abrar Hussain, will be the featured speaker at a
private equity event held by the Financial Analysis & Management
Education (FAME) organization at San Francisco State University. Past
featured speakers have included Ken Fisher of Fisher Investments,
Charles Brandes of Brandes Investment Partners, and Bob Doll of
BlackRock.